Austria: Multi-National May Day Rally for International Solidarity

Report (with Pictures and Videos) by the Austrian Section of the RCIT, 03.05.2017, www.rkob.net

Like every year, the Austrian Section of the RCIT takes advantage of May Day to spread the ideas of revolutionary Marxism and to demonstrate the spirit of international working class solidarity in words and deeds. Before noon, we intervened in the May Day demonstration of the social democratic party in Vienna. The Austrian section built a large book stall where we displayed newspapers, theoretical journals, pamphlets and books in German and English, as well as in several languages spoken by migrants in Austria. We were able to sell quite a few publications and had fruitful discussions with a number of people who showed interest in our work.

While the social democratic party is still able to mobilize thousands of people, it’s remarkable that its contingents hardly contain any migrants. Furthermore, the average age of these contingents is very high and labor aristocrats and better-off workers in the public sector are vastly overrepresented in them. Nevertheless, it’s incumbent upon true revolutionaries to try and win over whatever proletarian sectors still exist in the party so that they will break with the extreme right-wing leadership of the party, headed by former manager Christian Kern, a leadership which pursues an agenda of neo-liberal austerity, militarism and racist Islamophobia.

In the afternoon, the Austrian Section of the RCIT held its May Day rally close to the Syrian embassy. About 80 members and supporters, as well as Syrian, Egyptian, Iraqi, Ahwaz and Chechen activists, participated and listened to speeches by our 18 year old Syrian brother Yussef, our Iraqi brother Kamal al-Din, as well as to several RCIT speakers (Rahime Berisha, Marek Hangler, Johannes Moraga, Almedina Gunić and Michael Pröbsting).

In their speeches, the Austrian RCIT comrades stressed the need to fight against racism and the policy of austerity in Austria, as well as to continue support for the liberation struggles of all oppressed peoples against dictatorships and the imperialist Great Powers. We warned all those assembled about the attempts of the Great Powers to divide the oppressed and to buy-off their political leaders. And we vowed to continue our struggle until the working class defeats its enemies and takes power.